


Love tokens

by darkrogue1 (Lily_Haydee_Lohdisse)



Category: Kyou Kara Maou!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-02
Updated: 2007-05-02
Packaged: 2018-07-29 14:32:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7688092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lily_Haydee_Lohdisse/pseuds/darkrogue1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yuuri wants to know how the others feel about him, and Murata counsels him to ask for love tokens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love tokens

**Author's Note:**

> Beta-read by [](http://hisoka44.livejournal.com/profile)[**hisoka44**](http://hisoka44.livejournal.com/).
> 
> A.N.: This idea came to me a few months ago during a networks' lesson. We were talking about “token rings”, and I had “Eternal ring” stuck in my head...
> 
> Notes : A soukoku is a black-haired black-eyed mazoku if I remember right.

Back in Shinmakoku, Yuuri sat alone in the garden, deep in thought. Since his first days in this country, since he had been designated as the Maou, he had been thrown in a maelstrom of his retainers’ feelings and emotions. Yuuri did not know where it left him. He did not even really know exactly what those feelings were. He approximately knew what his own heart felt, but what of that of the others...?  
  
Those were the thoughts of the young king when the Great Sage, Murata Ken, came to sit next to him.  
  
“Yo, Shibuya!” The young soukoku greeted him.  
  
“Hi, Murata,” Yuuri responded, startled from his reveries.  
  
“You seem perplexed,” the Great Sage remarked, slightly teasing his friend. “Might it by any chance be a love problem?”  
  
Yuuri sighed; it really was not fair. With his centuries of experience, Murata was way too knowledgeable... but he had to admit that it was useful sometimes.  
  
“Only that there is no way to know how much other people love you...” He answered mournfully.  
  
“Hmm...” Murata mused with a seemingly pensive face, then he smiled impishly. “Well, you always can ask for love tokens,” he suggested. “What you will get should give you some insight.”  
  
Yuuri’s interest was picked. “Love tokens?”  
  
“Yes, you ask someone to give you something for the love of you... It’s quite a common practice to test how strong a love is..." Murata elaborated.  
  
“Hmm.” Yuuri nodded in a non-committal way. However Murata’s smile widened : he knew the king had already taken his decision.  
  
\------------  
  
Some time later, having steeled his courage and prepared his words, Yuuri went to find his lawful fiancé.  
  
“A love token?” Wolfram repeated enthusiastically. “Of course. What do you want?”  
  
Yuuri was quite taken aback. He did not know what he wanted. How could he rate those tokens by bye way? He had never given it a thought.  
  
“Anything... something that shows how much you love me,” Yuuri suggested, improvising.  
  
Wolfram nodded. To show the world how he loved Yuuri... He had just the idea.  
  
He left quickly, assuring Yuuri he would come back to give it to him soon.  
  
\---------  
  
Some time later, Yuuri met Gunther in a corridor. The older mazoku seemed to have been searching for him, and he was in his usual enthusiastic mood.  
  
“Oh! Your Majesty! I heard you have asked Wolfram for a love token...” he started.  
  
Fearing another passionate discourse and a clutching hug, Yuuri quickly interrupted him.  
  
“Yes, I want to know exactly how much everyone loves me,” he stated, trying to stay confident and to sound convincing. “I wanted to ask one from you as well,” he added.  
  
“Oh! Your Majesty!" Gunther exclaimed. “For you I would give my most precious treasures...”  
  
Yuuri laughed nervously. “Something simple would do, you know... I’ll let you think up something representative of how you think of me, Gunther.”  
  
Gunther left to fetch his gift for his sovereign and quickly came back with a shiny jewelled ring. It was magnificent and Yuuri was awed that Gunther thought so highly of him. He thanked him deeply, to what Gunther protested that his love for His Majesty shone brighter than those stones...  
  
After a while, Yuuri went to find Gwendal.  
  
\----------  
  
“A love token," Gwendal repeated with his usual serious face.  
  
“Yes, exactly.” Yuuri felt intimidated. Gwendal always had this effect on him.  
  
There was a moment of silence.  
  
The moment stretched.  
  
“So what do you want?” Gwendal asked after a while.  
  
“Me? I... I don’t know... Anything you think would be representative," Yuuri said as he had become used to.  
  
Gwendal frowned. “It doesn’t work like that,” he said, and for a while, Yuuri feared that the older demon’s expression was indignant. Thankfully -- or so he hoped -- it was only shocked.  
  
“You must ask for something that a person likes dearly. Something from which they won’t part easily. That way, if this person gives it to you, you know their love for you is strong."  
  
Yuuri felt suddenly very inadequate. He looked around, desperate for an idea. He would have to go back to Wolfram and give his ring back to Gunther then... But before he had to think of something to ask from Gwendal.  
  
His eyes fell on an old knitted animal on the shelves, and he turned back towards Gwendal.  
  
“Would you give him to me?” He asked, quite fearful.  
  
Gwendal’s frown intensified as he turned his eyes towards his beloved stuffed bear, then he looked back at the king and blushed. “Yes. It is yours.”  
  
Gwendal stood up, intent on taking the plushie to give it to Yuuri, but the young man stopped him.  
  
“Leave it there, Gwendal.” He smiled, bringing his hand up to his heart. “To me it’s enough to know you would give it to me.”  
  
Gwendal’s blush intensified...  
  
After he left Gwendal to his paperwork, Yuuri thought that at least so far, his experiment had been enlightening. He had not known Gwendal appreciated him so much as to give him his favourite knitted bear.  
  
\-----------  
  
Then, apologetically, he went to find Wolfram. He found the blond demon in front of his drawing stand, putting the final touch to a...quite unique...painting.  
  
“Look, Yuuri! This is my token. It represents my love for you.”  
  
Yuuri was ill at ease. “About this...”  
  
Wolfram was taken aback at Yuuri’s suggestion that he should keep it.  
  
“Do you want to ask for something else? Something specific?”  
  
Yuuri shook his head negatively. He had no idea what to ask of Wolfram. The mazoku liked his sword, but Yuuri would not know what to do with it...  
  
“Then keep it, for it shows my love for you.”  
  
Yuuri left Wolfram to clean his tools and the painting to dry and went in search of Gunther.  
  
Unsurprisingly, the mazoku refused to take his gift back... but Yuuri thought he had to apologise still, so he did.  
  
\----------  
  
Now Yuuri was back where he started, in the garden, thinking he must have seemed quite silly to the other mazokus today.  
  
“Your Majesty?” At the well-known voice, Yuuri started and turned.  
  
“Hello Conrad.”  
  
From Conrad’s face, he had also heard of Yuuri’s adventure in asking for love tokens today. But Conrad would not bring it up, so as not to force Yuuri to ask him for one, or just not to learn that Yuuri did not want to ask him for one.  
  
It was wrong. Yuuri wanted to ask him. Conrad had been the person Yuuri had wanted to know about this morning but... Yuuri’s hand went up to the pendant around his neck.  
  
He could not ask Conrad for his most precious possession; Conrad had already given it to him.  
  
“You heard about my silliness today, didn’t you?” He asked.  
  
Conrad smiled, in that reassuring smile which always melted Yuuri’s worries away.  
  
“It’s not silly, Your Majesty, to want to know how much people like you.”  
  
“I suppose it would not count if I asked you to call me Yuuri, would it?” Yuuri complained. But inside he was worried: maybe Conrad did not love him that much if he never called him by name.  
  
“No... I don‘t think it would be considered as a love token, Yuuri," Conrad answered, stressing on the young man’s name.  
  
Yuuri smiled, but he still did not know what to ask... But this was Conrad, so he spoke up: Conrad would understand.  
  
“I don’t know what to ask,” he stated truthfully. “I mean... you have already given me so much...” He put his hand on the blue pendant and looked Conrad in the eyes to be sure he understood his meaning.  
  
Conrad smiled to ease the worry from Yuuri’s face. “Whenever you think of something you want from me, you just have to ask, Yuuri,” he stated.  
  
And Yuuri smiled. Conrad always gave him everything. Conrad was ready to give him all he had...  
  
But this also meant a token from Conrad would not mean much either. At this point, Yuuri realised that, more than a test, the token he wished for was just a symbol.  
  
A symbol! A picture imposed itself in Yuuri’s mind, a similar tradition he knew way better...  
  
His eyes strayed down from Conrad’s face to stop on the man’s chest and stopped there for a second, looking longingly. Then he came back to himself and looked back up, but Conrad had been watching him and had caught the look.  
  
Yuuri was dreadfully embarrassed. He knew what he wanted now, but he dared not ask. What if Conrad accepted without knowing the meaning Yuuri put behind it? Or what if he knew and refused?  
  
Conrad smiled at him in reassurance then, and drew his dagger to bring it at his heart’s height.  
  
Quickly he cut through the fabric’s thread and sheathed his weapon back, then proffered his hand forward, holding the object Yuuri had been looking at earlier.  
  
“Is this what you wanted to ask for?” He said, offering it cupped in his upturned hand.  
  
“Yes,” Yuuri sighed in a whisper.  
  
He brought his hand up to cover Conrad’s own, holding the token between them.  
  
“Thank you,” he let out. But Conrad felt that this was more of a relieved cry, a thanks to a divinity above for an answer to a prayer, and not really a thanking for Conrad’s present.  
  
Conrad smiled and his eyes shone happily. They stayed together for a while like this, standing hand in hand in the garden.  
  
\---------  
  
Just before dinner they went back. Conrad wanted to go change, but Yuuri told him not to. “Are you crazy? We don’t have time! Doria said they were making soufflé tonight.”  
  
And so Conrad went on directly, quite self-conscious about his state of dress.  
  
During dinner, Yuuri regretted he had not sent Conrad to change: Murata’s knowing smile was both annoying and frightening.  
  
Blushing bright red, Yuuri hoped and prayed Murata would at least not make a public comment, or explain exactly why Conrad was missing a button from his uniform; the second button down, the closest to his heart.  
  
  



End file.
